Author(s): Mbagwu Chioma B, Keke Ibeawuchi R and Okorie Peter U

Abstract: The water quality and carcass proximate composition of the juveniles of Clarias gariepinus, fed varying inclusion levels of blood meal in concrete ponds was investigated for a period of 270 days. Five Iso-nitrogenous (40% crude protein) diets were formulated with blood meal replacing fish meal diets at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. Three hundred (300) Clarias gariepinus juveniles of initial average weight and length of (11.45±0.25g and 9.00cm) were stocked at 20 fish per pond of five treatments diets in triplicate in a completely randomized design (CRD). The fishes were hand-fed at 8.00am and 4.00pm at 5% body weight daily. The data obtained from water quality parameters and carcass composition (initial and final) were analyzed using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The water samples analyzed for various physico-chemical parameters like temperature (26.79-27.130c), pH (5.92-6.34), dissolve oxygen (5.82 - 6.05mg/l), transparency (15.84 – 16.70mg/l) and ammonia (0.13 – 0.24mg/l) and were within the recommended range for Clarias gariepinus culture. The body composition of the experimental fish carcasses showed that, there were significant difference in the nutrients contents of crude protein (68.00 - 69.50%), lipid (10.25–10.46%), NFE (13.33 – 13.88%), ash (8.07–8.29%) and lower fibre (8.51– 9.45%) contents at p>0.05 over the initial fish sample. This study concludes that, inclusion of blood meal at 25% as a replacement for fish meal in the diet of Clarias gariepinus does improve the nutritional composition of the whole fish produced and had no adverse effect on the water quality observed during culture.

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